The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said yesterday that it will discuss with airlines and travel agencies the feasibility of rolling out new promotional offers for tourists from Shaanxi’s provincial capital of Xi’an and Shandong’s port city of Qingdao, the two cities that have been newly added to the central government’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), which started on Wednesday.
After including the two cities, 51 cities in the mainland are now covered by the Individual Visit Scheme (IVS), which enables individual travellers with IVS permits to visit Hong Kong and Macau.
According to an MGTO statement yesterday, MGTO officials including Deputy Director Ricky Hoi Io Meng welcomed tourists from Xi’an at the airport upon their arrival yesterday.
An MGTO statement on Wednesday pointed out that adding Xi’an and Qingdao to the Individual Visit Scheme marks the fact that new cities have now been included in the scheme for the first time since 2007, indicating the central government’s support for Macau’s continuous development. The statement said that the new measure would “certainly” benefit the continuous development of Macau’s tourism industry.
Since the scheme was rolled out in 2003, the number of IVS cities had been gradually increased until 2007 when the scheme then covered 49 cities. Since then, no new cities had been added to the scheme, before Wednesday when those from Xi’an and Qingdao are now able to visit Hong Kong and Macau as an individual traveller.
The full list of the scheme’s 51 cities in English can be accessed at: https://www.tourism.gov.hk/en/visitor_ind.php
Those from other cities not covered by the scheme can only visit Hong Kong and Macau by joining tour groups.
Holders of IVS travel permits can stay in Hong Kong or Macau for up to seven days per visit.
According to yesterday’s MGTO statement, Macau’s official tourism mascot Mak Mak welcomed tourists from Xi’an at the airport yesterday, where they were given free souvenirs.
The statement also pledged that the local government will work with the local tourism sector to attract more tourists from Xi’an and Qingdao, with the aim of making good use of the central government’s measures favourable to Macau.
The statement said that MGTO officials will discuss with travel agencies and the respective airlines the viability of rolling out new promotional offers for tourists from the two cities.
Qingdao & Xi’an flights
The statement underlined that Xi’an and Qingdao are market sources of visitors that Macau has been placing strong emphasis on, pointing out that five return flights operate between Macau and Qingdao per week, while three return flights operate between Macau and Xi’an per week.
Qingdao, which is world-famous for its German-style Tsingtao beer, has a population of 10 million. Xi’an has some 13 million inhabitants.
According to the Macau International Airport’s website, the five return flights between Macau and Qingdao are run by Air Macau, while the three return flights between Macau and Xi’an are operated by China Eastern Airlines.
The statement also noted that those visiting Macau under the Individual Visit Scheme accounted for 56 percent of the total number of visitor arrivals from the mainland last year.
Speaking to reporters yesterday after welcoming tourists from Xi’an, Hoi said that Macau recorded around 59,000 visitor arrivals from Qingdao last year, an increase of around 30 percent from pre-pandemic 2019, while around 100,000 visitor arrivals from Xi’an were recorded last year, returning to around 70 percent of the 2019 level.
According to Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) data, Macau recorded 19 million visitor arrivals from the mainland last year, of whom 10.6 million visited Macau with IVS permits.
Visitor arrivals from the mainland accounted for 67.5 percent of Macau’s total visitor arrival number last year, according to the DSEC data.
Macau’s official tourism mascot Mak Mak welcomes tourists from Xi’an at the Macau International Airport yesterday.
– Photo: MGTO
